Friday, October 26, 2012

Silence is NOT golden in American politics In life as in anything else, you don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate. Democracy is a tool and not an end to itself. Equal rights and opportunities are earned through activism, and seldom bestowed upon you due to someone else's enlightenment. For an ethnic minority like AsAms, casting a unified bloc vote is the only way we can collectively flex our political muscle for impact.

Negotiation is give and take In the national as well as local elections, we negotiate candidate's commitment to AsAms in exchange for our votes. National campaigns aside, our energized chapters also address local issues. For example, NAAPAC-Michigan Chapter sent a questionnaire to 26 candidates for the board of regents/trustees/governors of U. of Michigan, Michigan State U., and Wayne State U. requesting Yes/No answers on AsAm representation in academic leadership positions, before the 1800 AsAm faculty members will cast their ballots on Nov. 6. So far, 9 have answered with resounding Yeses. These candidates will get the AsAm votes and will be held responsible for their commitment once elected. Do you think they feel the heat?

Do we have the wisdom to learn from African Americans?
Click this Black Folks Must Vote document to see how African Americans earned their equal rights and why they are mobilizing to vote for their collective interests. Learn from all the peoples who struggled before us, the Poles, the Italians, the Scots, the Jews, the blacks and the Hispanics, who exercised their civic rights to become equal citizens of this great nation. You have the drive and smarts to make a living and to provide for your families. Now see the bigger picture!

Will you stand in unity for our collective interest?
Will you show up at the voting booths on Nov 6 and help cast a decisive bloc vote for Obama?

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Will you do your part to support our "$5.82 donation" campaign for a bloc vote? Need thousands more donation hits to demonstrate we are serious about getting our voices heard!

Romney claimed, as President, he will never apologize for America

Anyone makes mistakes, having the courage to right wrongs is a virtue, not a weakness.

Consider this:

1) The Congress has apologized for the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1896, and the Japanese Internment Program of the World War II, which were egregious wrongs that one should learn from and never to repeat.

2) Article 1 of the Florida Constitution still features an "Alien Land Law" that prohibits AsAms from owning land in Florida. This 1926 law targeted Asian immigrants to prevent them from buying farm land, and using their agricultural skills and labor to compete with American farmers. Can you believe it is now 2012? Florida had earned a dubious distinction to being the only State in the US where this racist law is still enshrined in the current Constitution (despite not being enforced). The new 80-20 NAAPAC-Florida Chapter is committed to purging this ignominious law from Florida's books.

History will repeat itself if we do not learn the lessons.

Stereotyped as "perpetual foreigners", any international incident has the potential to ratchet up xenophobic sentiment that hurts all AsAms. When this happens, politicians will once again compete to be the toughest to "protect American interest and values". Do we want a President who is humble enough to learn from history or do you want one who is "infallible"?

Watch this video of George Takei, a survivor of the Japanese Internment Camp, as to why this election is so important:

"I know how far we've come. I've lived it.

When I was 5 years old, my family was forced from our home and into a "relocation center" -- where we lived for four years behind barbed-wire fences during World War II. We were American citizens, imprisoned for no other reason than what we looked like.

Through shared sacrifice, we've made remarkable achievements in the last 70 years -- advances that we should all be proud of. That's why this came as a real shock to me: Less than half of us are even registered to vote. I know we can do better."

Thursday, October 11, 2012

The tight race is a golden opportunity to showcase AsAm political power by decisively tipping the election outcome with an AsAm bloc vote.

Remember G.W. Bush become President by a margin of 572 votes in Florida! Will you do your part in our "$5.82 donation" campaign for a bloc vote? Need thousands more donation hits to demonstrate we are serious about getting our voices heard!

Romney cannot win without Florida

Romney's campaign rebuffed our repeated attempts to reach out to him.

DON'T reward Romney's arrogance with your votes!

80-20 has ramped up efforts to defeat him in the critical Battle Ground States (Florida, Ohio and Michigan). Here is how we're doing it in Florida:

80-20 Florida chapter established!

We welcome and congratulate the leaders in Florida for organizing the 80-20 NAAPAC-FL Chapter. The chapter was formed in September and immediately kicked into action to influence the election by:

Organizing volunteers for canvases and phone banks for the Obama Campaign

Giving presentations to various AsAm groups through TV, radio, social media, and group discussions

Encouraging 80-20 NAAPAC volunteers to support local elections / candidates

Participating in the 8th Annual Experience Asia Festival in Tallahassee

We urge all AsAms in Florida to become members of the Florida Chapter. Freedom is not Free. Please take action Today…

80-20 NAAPAC-FL members were among the key organizers of the 8th Annual Experience Asia Festival in Tallahassee, a huge event held on Oct. 6 with over 15,000 attendees. Members from Jacksonville and Miami came to Tallahassee to introduce 80-20 to the general public in the capital city of Florida and received warm and positive responses. They provided information about 80-20, its goals and objectives, and its current position and the bloc vote strategy regarding the upcoming election. Thousands of flyers were given to the AsAm audience encouraging them to vote and vote in bloc!

Their next big events are:

The Early VOTE Picnic "GOTV Picnic" organized by UDiON Foundation and ICNEF on November 3rd in Jacksonville, FL and

The annual "IRCC Diwali Festival of Lights Festival" in Fort Lauderdale on November 10th.

Weekly NAAPAC – FL radio announcement and interview by Outreach Inc. on Indian Radio program, "Our Voice", on 980 AM between 3PM & 4PM. You can access it on the web via http://www.whsrradio.com/streamer/

More Life Members Joined!

We are greatly honored to have 3 new 80-20 life members: Albert Chen & Su Xu of Florida, Miranda Cheung of California

We also thank these generous donors: James Cheung of California, $5000 Emmy Ng of California, $5000 Miranda Cheung of California, $5000 Jiang Jiang of Michigan, $405

Is your future worth $5.82?

People in the battleground states are working hard to shape a better future for AsAms.

If you care about yourselves, your family and the wellbeing of our nation—as I believe you must—then I beg you to take two minutes to read to the end of this letter.

Where does a cart go when pulled by two horses in opposite directions? You get the point. As a minority group, we had long been deemed irrelevant and inconsequential—until the 2008 Presidential election when AsAms UNITED to deliver a decisive bloc vote for Obama—in return for his written promises to rectify long-neglected civil rights grievances that AsAms suffered.

What LANDMARK progress has NAAPAC (80-20 Initiative) won for you through Obama?

For the first time since 1964, the US Dept. of Labor finally in 2009 began enforcing The Equal Rights Act (EO11246, signed by President Johnson), on behalf of 17.5 million AsAms. This is the law that helped propel millions of Blacks, Hispanics and women into the upper ranks of management at universities, in private industry and in federal government. An egregious 45 years of workplace inequality was FINALLY ending.

More than doubling of the number of AsAm federal judges from 6 to 17; major increases in the number of AsAm presidents and provosts at American universities; in numerous top administration positions; and the creation of Senior Executive Service (SES) Development Program for AsAms under the leadership of Chris Lu, Obama's cabinet secretary

Why we CANNOT afford to lose traction or momentum due to split voting

With iron-willed-unity, Jewish Americans gained incredible political power to reward as well as punish politicians who dare to act at odds with the Jewish community's common interests. For each and every presidential election cycle, 80-20 NAAPAC reached out to both the Republican and Democratic candidates. The Republicans have again deliberately ignored us, leaving us with NO choice but to REWARD the candidate who has delivered on the promises and PUNISH the one arrogant enough to believe they can kick us aside without consequence

A united bloc vote for Obama is the ONLY way for us to protect and ensure continued progress in the next four years. Bloc voting is the ONLY way AsAm will continue to gain progress and political clout so our grievances can continue to be addressed as we gain our full rights as equal citizens.

A donation in the unique amount of $5.82 (not $5, not $20, not $50 which is not noticeable), once or every week till election day by you and your family members and friends, sends a special message to the Obama administration that AsAm are united and gearing up for a repeat bloc vote. Don't look to others to do this for you—that's the kind of apathetic attitude that got us deep in the political hole in the past. NEVER AGAIN! If we want to be taken seriously, we have to take serious action. NOW.

DO IT FOR YOURSELF. FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS. And for a better America

When all AsAms can become all that they are capable of being and contribute fully to building a better and stronger America, everyone benefits. Our nation will be transfused with a full measure of the industrious perseverance, technological ingenuity, and job creating entrepreneurship that AsAm are famous for.